Ring Them Bells
by darkaccalia520
Summary: Written for the Writers Anonymous Broken Object challenge. Set between series two and three, Rose helps Blanche release her hate. One-shot. *Winning piece.* *COMPLETE*


**A/N: This story is set between series two and three (early 1945) and is written for the Writer's Anonymous Broken Object challenge.**

 **For fandom blind readers, _tenko_ is the Japanese word for roll call; after the bell rang, the internees were expected to line up and bow to authority figures, among other things.**

 **Thank you to Igenlode Wordsmith for his betaing help.**

 **If interested, an accompanying fanvid can be found here (please be sure to eliminate spaces and add the proper punctuation): vidders . net** **/video/tenko-rose-and-blanche-ring-them-bells** **. Thank you for looking.**

 **Disclaimer: Tenko** ** **and its characters are not my creation. They are the creation of Lavinia Warner as a 1980's television series. This work of fanfiction is for entertainment purposes only and is not for financial gain. I am just borrowing the characters for a bit and promise to return them unharmed and in their original condition, maybe just a bit happier.****

 **Ring Them Bells**

"Oh, sod it," Blanche muttered as the bell for _tenko_ interrupted her sleep. As she pushed herself out of bed, she noticed none of the others were attempting to get up. She reached over to Dorothy, who was in the bed next to her, and gave her shoulder a shake. "Dot, wake up. Time for _tenko_." She then turned to go out the door of the hut when she heard a familiar voice coming from the shadows.

"'Ello, 'ello, 'ello."

Blanche stopped short; she knew that voice. She turned back around and peered into the corner, a hand rising to her mouth. "Rose? Is...is that you?"

"The one and only," Rose replied, stepping into the light. "It seems like ages since we've seen one another."

"Just over a year, but that's like a lifetime in here. I didn't... After you..." She sighed in an effort to collect her thoughts. "I think about you every day; I hope you know that. Except this is one hell of a dream..." she said with a shake of her head. "That is, I _hope_ it's a dream. I'm not hallucinating, am I?" She turned to look behind her. None of the other women stirred; none of them made any attempt to go outside for _tenko_. Blanche suddenly came to the realization there was no _tenko_ , not now anyway. "Is this a dream?"

Rose placed a gentle hand on her arm. "You already know the answer to that, ducky," she said quietly before moving to sit at the end of one of the vacant beds. "Do you remember what happened?"

Blanche thought for a few brief moments and moved to sit next to her. "'Course I do. I've been sick with beriberi, but I'm sure you already knew that. In fact, I wasn't even in here last... Oh..." She paused, bringing a hand to her head as the memory of the previous evening came back to her. She inhaled sharply. "I died."

"Don't feel bad for not knowing right away. When I..." She put an arm around Blanche's shoulders. "It took me a few days to work it out when I died, too. I was still lying in that bed in sick bay screaming my head off, and I didn't know why everyone was ignoring me. It wasn't until Bernard showed up and told me to get up that I finally understood."

"I see..." Blanche replied quietly, shrugging her away and standing once again. She needed some time to come to terms with it all. Oh, she'd dreamed of being free ever since the beginning, but not quite this way. All the times she'd attempted escape, and _this_ was how it was going to end? Leaving Singapore wasn't the problem, but leaving the others? That wasn't going to be as easy as she thought.

"...Blanche, did you hear me? Are you all right?"

Rose's tentative touch on her shoulder pulled her back to reality. "Sorry," she muttered, turning to face her again. "It's...a bit of a shock, but I-I'm fine." She offered her a weak smile. "I'm just...not sure I can leave them." She nodded her head towards the other women, who were still sound asleep. "I don't see how I can suddenly walk away, after everything we've been through together. I can't abandon them, can I?" She crossed her arms over her chest and paced for a few moments. "Is...is this normal? Did you go through this, too?"

Rose nodded, moving to sit again. "I stayed in the camp for months after. I just couldn't... I felt that somehow, my presence made a difference, even though none of you knew I was still there."

"Tell me."

"Well, I talked to you, all of you. I tried to provide some comfort." She took a deep breath and looked Blanche in the eye. "I was with you the most, though. I held you when you were crying, tried to tell you everything was going to be all right."

"It's too bad that wasn't true," Blanche said, but she instantly regretted it upon seeing the pained look on Rose's face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean..."

Rose waved a hand, however. "Let's face it; it was more for me than for you anyway. _I'm_ the one who needed the comfort as much as any of you, possibly more." She gave a shrug. "I needed time to accept my death, even though I'd asked for it."

A shaky breath escaped Blanche's lips as she lowered her gaze to the floor. "I knew Bea had helped you along the way. She'd never admit it out loud, but I knew... I'd begged her to help you. Not that I wanted to say goodbye to you, but it was the least I could do, after everything."

"I didn't think she was going to, not at first, but when it came down to it... She knew as well as I did that this place was going to kill me. There was no point in delaying the inevitable. I think it was a last-minute decision on her part, but her desire to end my suffering outweighed everything else." She moved to stand next to Blanche again. "It wasn't until after I'd died that I learned that you..." She sighed, wringing her hands together. "They say when you die, your life flashes before your eyes. Well, it's true. You're shown whatever it is you want to see...and of course, I'd asked to see how my accident had affected you. Every time you came to see me, I knew you were holding back, and I couldn't... Out of everyone, leaving you was the hardest. I had to make sure you were all right."

Blanche felt her eyes fill up with tears, but she swallowed hard, trying to keep them at bay. "But I wasn't, was I?"

Rose shook her head quietly. "Not at first, no. I think that's why I stayed for as long as I did." She reached out and took her hand in her own, giving it a squeeze. "You know I wasn't... Women were always competition to me before, but after our internment..." She looked around. "Well, I didn't want to admit, but I needed all of you more than you know. But you..." She turned back to her, putting her hand over hers. " _You_ were the one person I could count on."

Blanche could hear Rose's voice become thick with emotion, and she felt the sting of tears from her own eyes.

"You were the one who kept me sane in this living hell, so I couldn't just leave you. Oh, I knew you could take care of yourself...that you could take whatever life threw at you, but..." She took a deep breath. "I also knew that was a bit of a front."

Blanche shook her head, pulling her hand away so she could wipe at her eyes. "How can you possibly say that?"

Rose's jaw dropped. "You...you're not upset with me, are you?"

"N-no, that's not what I meant." She turned and placed an arm around Rose's shoulders. "Rose, I never meant... Everything that happened between us... I just don't understand. How could you be so worried about me when I didn't always act like much of a friend? The way I treated you after Debbie..."

Rose held up a halting hand. "No, _don't._ There's no sense in dredging up the past; I wasn't exactly innocent in the matter. Besides, you more than made up for it in the end. You...you were there for me when I'd needed you most. You showed me how much you cared... I couldn't have asked for anything more. You...you made my days so much brighter, especially in the end, and if things had been different, you know I never would have left you."

Blanche nodded quietly, knowing she was right. There was a long, pregnant pause before she felt the need to cut through the silence again. "When did you know it was time to finally go?"

"I didn't exactly. It was more like a guess." She motioned to the room. "When you'd moved to this new camp, there seemed to be little point in me sticking around. Besides, part of me knew it wouldn't be long before we met again...an unfortunate effect of the afterlife. You're blessed with knowing things you may not want to know. I am sorry."

Blanche offered her a weak smile. "You've got nothing to be sorry for. Deep down, I think I knew it, too. I'm not... I was never really worried about _me_ anyway. Tart with a heart and all that." She moved to sit down next to the sleeping Dorothy. "Besides, it's not as though _you_ were the reason we ended up here. It was the bloody Nips and this godforsaken war."

"I'm not sure we can blame the Nips either."

Blanche stared at her in shock. "You can't be serious. Didn't you just point out what a living hell it all was? You do realize that Nip bastard Shinya was the one who shot you in the first place, don't you?"

"Of course I know who... He looked me in the eye before he..." She shook her head. "But you know Shinya was only following orders. He didn't sign on to kill people. Before he pulled that trigger, he looked like a frightened child. That's all he really was... He was only trying to impress Sato, and you know it. Before that, Shinya was... Well, he was sort of a friend. How many cigarettes did we get because of him, hm?"

"Only because of Dot."

"But you knew full well _where_ she got them," Rose pointed out.

Blanche crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, it doesn't matter what he did _before_ ; it's what he did after. He shot you, and he killed Bernard. Don't you hate him for that? Don't you hate all of them?"

"When I was alive, of course I did. I _hated_ Yamauchi..."

"Don't forget his right hand, _Satan_...and that awful Miss Hasan," Blanche added dryly.

Rose smiled softly. "We could spend hours naming them, but in the end, would it really matter? They were all following orders from someone... They never asked to be thrown into that situation."

"And _neither_ did we," Blanche replied. "I can't believe you can just...forgive those monsters. How can you act like what they did was all right?"

"The forgiveness wasn't for _them_ , dear; it was for me...so I could move on. And by doing so, I wasn't... I'm not excusing what they did, but we all did things we might not have done otherwise. We did what we had to do to survive, and you can't deny that."

"No, I suppose I can't, but I'm not willing to forgive so readily. It's their fault you and I never lived long enough to see our thirtieth birthdays. It's their fault you and Bernard will never get married, never have children... They took so much away from us. I can't give up the anger just like that." Blanche eyed her friend carefully. "How _were_ you able to do it anyway? Another effect of the afterlife?"

"You could say that, but are you really interested? Seems to me you're more set on staying angry."

Blanche sighed. "Well, is this all there is?" She motioned around the room. "Surely, the afterlife isn't just watching those who get to keep on living, is it? Aren't we supposed to walk through the pearly gates together? Go to the land of milk and honey? See all our loved ones?"

"It's not quite like that, but there is more. I thought you weren't ready to leave, though..."

"I'm not sure," she replied with a shrug. "Even if I don't go now, I'm expected to go at some point, aren't I?"

"There's really no set rule. It's whenever you're ready. Some people spend years before they make that leap while some never do. I can't make the decision for you."

"Then why _are_ you here?"

A smile tugged at Rose's lips. "To give you the tools you need in order to make that decision. As to how I was able to forgive, that went hand in hand with my decision to leave the camp for good, and it all started with this." She motioned to her right where the _tenko_ bell hung.

Blanche stared at it for a moment. She'd been in four camps over the four years of internment, and each camp used a different _tenko_ bell: the first used a large triangle, the second and third utilized the sort of bell they used in school, and the fourth didn't use a bell at all but rather a hand-crank air raid siren. However, Rose decided to show her the school bell.

"It really isn't the type of bell that's important," Rose said as if she knew what Blanche was thinking. "It's what it can do for you."

Blanche gave a slight laugh. "What it can do for me? Are you joking? That bell can't do anything for me. I never want to see another _tenko_ bell as long as I live... Well, for as long as I'm... Oh, you know what I mean," she muttered in frustration. "I _hate_ bells now; all they do is remind me of pain and suffering."

"Precisely."

Blanche's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "What?"

Rose gave the bell a slight push, making it ring. "Bells are supposed to sound innocent. They're for good things: church, weddings, winning wars, getting let out of school. But for us the _tenko_ bell's all about pain and suffering and death. There's nothing good about it." She paused and looked Blanche in the eye. "Break it."

"Break it?" she repeated. "How can I... It's made of metal."

Rose held it steady, causing the ringing to stop. "Another effect of the afterlife. You can do anything you set your mind to, believe it or not. Give it a few good whacks; it won't hurt. Take out your frustrations on this bell. It's what you need."

Blanche shook her head in disbelief. If she hit that bell, all it was going to do was ring loudly, hit poor Rose in the face, and possibly break her hand, she was sure of it. Yet, she knew Rose would never steer her wrong. "Stand back," she said as she made a fist and gave the bell the hardest punch she could muster, crying out when her hand made contact.

Though Rose had assured her it would be painless, it still surprised her to find her hand didn't hurt at all. She also couldn't help but smile when she saw the small dent on the side of the bell. She tightened her fist and hit it again.

"That's it," Rose told her. "Keep going."

Blanche gladly obliged, another cry escaping her as she continued to destroy the bell, tears streaming down her cheeks from pent-up emotion. Every hit was a release of her anger, her pain. After the bell fell to the floor, she couldn't stop. She hit and kicked it, sure she wouldn't be satisfied until it was smashed to bits.

Several more hits, and she was exhausted. She sank to the floor, her entire body trembling as sobs wracked her thin frame. She brought her knees up to her chest and buried her face in them.

In an instant, Rose was at her side. She pulled Blanche into her arms but didn't urge her to stop. She simply rubbed her back and whispered to her in gentle tones. "That's it, ducky, let it all out."

Blanche held her tightly and cried into her shoulder for several moments until she felt empty. Then she pulled away and wiped the stray tears from her cheeks.

"There, now; don't you feel better?"

She nodded. "You must have done the same thing?"

"With Bernard's help, yes," Rose replied, taking Blanche's hand in hers once again. "It's something you're asked to do after you die. Obviously, not everyone gets a bell to destroy, but we all have to get rid of the pain from when we were alive before we can get to the pearly gates bit of the afterlife. You need to be washed clean of all those old feelings before you can be happy." She paused. " _Do_ you feel happier?"

"Honestly, I feel numb. I don't feel anything. I don't even feel ang-" She stopped short. "Oh, that was the point."

"Yes, but I can't promise the anger is gone completely. You feel numb now, but that might not be permanent." She shrugged. "It's a process, but that anger will fade away as time goes on. And eventually, you'll almost forget why you were angry in the first place."

"You mean you've forgotten?"

"Not exactly, but I've come to understand it. I'm not keen on the way my life turned out, but I'm much happier now. Bernard and I are together, and now you're here with me." She gave her hand a squeeze. "That's really all I ever wanted during our internment. And the others are here, too."

"The others? Debbie and Sal?"

"Of course, as well as Judith and Sylvia...and more than that."

"I think I've lost count of just how many went before us." She paused as a thought hit her. How many more would they see before the end of the war? She bit her bottom lip in worry. "And after? Do you know which ones?"

"Joss will join us in about a year's time, but everyone else we know survives. The war is nearly over."

"Even Goldwyn Mayer, cow that she is?" She sighed. "Well, goody for her, for all of them. Looks like they're survivors, which is more than we can say for us, innit?"

"Oh, but we do survive in their hearts," Rose reminded her. "And we both have several pages in Marion's diary. They'll never forget us."

"S'pose you're right, and I reckon that goes both ways."

"Indeed," Rose replied, moving to stand. "Are you coming with me?"

"Y-you're leaving so soon?" Blanche asked, rising to her feet.

"I'm only allowed short visits now, and my work here is done for the time being. I can come back again for another visit, but I can't stay."

"Oh..." Blanche placed a finger to her chin in thought as she looked around once again. "They'll be fine without me, won't they?"

"I promise." Rose placed a gentle hand on her arm. "Haven't you been unhappy for long enough?"

Blanche thought for a minute longer before giving a nod. "You're right. I don't want to stay here any longer."

Rose smiled and offered her arm. "Then let's go."

As they walked through the hut door, they passed another bell hanging on a post. Blanche gave it a gentle push, suddenly not hating the sound as much as she did before. "This is for you, ladies. Remember we'll see you again someday."


End file.
